With the highly-anticipate and quite polarizing Apple iPhone on the verge of making its second-generation debut next week, a new research report from Gartner has surfaced. The report puts Apple, with just a single iPhone model to boast of, in the No. 3 spot among global smartphone vendors for Q1 2008. Cupertino took broke into the “Top 3″ in the smartphone market with 1.7 million iPhones sold since it’s debut last year. It seems that the iPhone is seen globally as a competent smartphone capable of competing with the best – even with all it’s faults.

With increasing awareness among consumers of the smartphone segment and a strong sales push from carriers looking to increase their ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), the smartphone market has highlighted growth in the mobile phone industry. And, the ever increasing smartphone market seems to have helped Apple come in behind smartphone makers Nokia and RIM. Nokia took an astounding 45.2% (14.58 million units) of global smartphone sales, with RIM, makers of the ever-popular push-emailing BlackBerry lineup, garnering 13.4% (4.31 million units) of all smartphone sales.

Compared to the same period last year, smartphone sales grew 29%, with 32.2 million smartphones sold in the first quarter. The growing market didn’t just help Apple, Nokia saw a 25.3% growth in smartphone sales in Q1. But, the most remarkable growth numbers belong to RIM – the BlackBerry maker increased smartphone sales by 107.3%.

So, will Apple’s next-generation iPhone be enough to not only meet its goal of moving 10 million units by the end of 2008, but also overtake the BlackBerry as the most sought-after smartphone? If Apple manages to right all the wrongs that current-generation iPhone users have been complaining of, the 3G iPhone will most likely do better in the next few months than it the past year. We’ll have to wait and see.